It's difficult to detect any player who has made such a
dramatic leap from one year to the next, but then talents such as New Orleans
Pelicans forward Anthony Davis don't come along very often.

A year ago, the rising star of Friday night's opponent,
Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers, was making a mockery out of the
rookie of the year race, outdistancing Davis early on and running away to only
the fourth unanimous win of the award in league history.

Lillard hasn't experienced a sophomore slump this season,
his numbers as of Friday almost mirroring those he put up all of last year,
save for slight drops in assists and steals.

And his 16 fourth-quarter points in the final 5:56 of
Portland's 111-103 win (he had 27 in all) was impressive.

But Davis has soared to another level, one that has opposing
coaches, such as Memphis' Dave Joerger, talking about what could be a legendary
future.

"Anthony Davis is going to be a star in this league for the
next 10 years," Joerger said before Davis scored 29 points, grabbed 10
rebounds, blocked four shots had two assists and a steal.

An afterthought in the rookie race last season, this year
Davis has catapulted into the post-season awards talk in several categories.

Consider that Davis has increased his per-game averages of
points, offensive, defensive and total rebound, assists, steals, blocks, free
throws and free-throw attempts.

Additionally, Davis has upped his field-goal and free-throw
percentages.

Those facts scream most improved player candidacy.

Pelicans coach Monty Williams, who has played with and
against a long list of NBA icons, says he hasn't witnessed a player of Davis'
caliber experience such a remarkable growth spurt.

"Yeah, but they're not All-Stars," Williams said. "Usually
it's guys who are role players and on the verge of being out of the league and
they make a name for themselves and become a rotation player. It's rare to see
a guy who was already a starter probably move into maybe the top 10 players in
the NBA if you listen to all these people who grade all this stuff.

"I've not seen anybody go from where he was last year to I
think to being in defensive player of the year conversation, most improved,
All-NBA. That to me is a huge leap for a guy who last year wasn't in that
position. A lot of it is me holding me back and making sure he was ready for
it. But he has made a huge leap."

It's not a stretch to offer Davis as a candidate for MIP.

A campaign for defensive player of the year and all-NBA
would be more grueling.

There are those who are amazed at the outside shooting touch
Davis has displayed this season.

He's hitting 52.5 percent of his shots and has 25 more
assists through 56 games as he had all of last year.

Yet Davis possesses the varied skill set one might imagine
for an individual who in high school played just about every position on the
court, one through five.

What he has done this year, then, shouldn't be that staggering
if you consider the backstory.

"I was more of a shooter," Davis said of his high school
years at Chicago's Perspectives Charter School/Joslin Campus. "For people who
haven't been watching me play, I wasn't a big name in high school. There wasn't
anybody watching me play or seeing me play. So I can see why it would be surprising,
especially after I was shooting the ball last year.

"(At Kentucky) I didn't have to (shoot). With the guys we
had on that team, I didn't have to do a lot of the scoring."

In the Pelicans last four games before Friday night's loss
to the Trail Blazers, Davis was averaging 29.5 points and 14 rebounds, tying
the franchise record set by power forward David West of four straight 25 and 10
games.

He had a career-high 36 with nine board against Portland.

"He'll do something in practice and he'll scream out '6-3,
6-3.' And guys will go 'I don't know what he's talking about,' " Williams said.
"But I think he's going back to when he was 6-3 and playing the guard position.
I think that helps him because his footwork is so sound when he goes to a
one-dribble pull up or a one-dribble, we call it pick a spot, where he finds a
spot he wants to get to and jumps over everybody.

"I think that comes from his days as a guard and I'm sure
his shooting also comes from that because he played outside so much."

Davis' well-rounded basketball upbringing, he says, has
helped ease his professional transition.

"I'm able to pass the ball, dribble, shoot it," Davis said.
"Being a guard before, just knowing the guard aspect of the game I was able to
take it to a big. It made the game a lot easier."

Before the season, Williams said he gave Davis, as well as
point guard Jrue Holiday, a list of NBA players whom Williams considered better
at their respective positions.

"They didn't like it, but it's not my job to please guys,"
Williams said. "I got to let them know what the real deal is. And those guys
were ahead of him. Now, A.D. is probably ahead of all but maybe one or two of
them, depending on who you talk to.

"He could be the No. 1 guy, but I'm still going to find ways
to challenge him because I still see things he can improve upon. To me, that's
what coaches do. So that's my goal, to not be his buddy. When I'm done with
him, and all of our guys, I want to be able to say, 'OK, I got the most out of
him.' "

Davis accepted the challenge and agreed with the assessment.

"I mean it was accurate," Davis said. "I was just trying to
make sure I was getting better and move up on the list."